Graham Collier: Down Another Road (1969) Fontana

Selection:

1.  Barley Mow

.  .  .

    2 Lullaby For A Lonely Child

.  .  .

The selection would have been Danish Blue but for the sad fact that it has a scratch through Harry Beckett’s solo. The record’s original owner got a lot of autographs, spoiled the front cover with Colliers autograph, and then scratched the record’s best track. But this vinyl is rare, very rare, hardly anyone bought it at the time, different rules apply. It is wonderful music, unlike almost anything around it in its time. I had to have it, faults and all.

Track list

1. “Down Another Road” – 5:09
2. “Danish Blue” – 17:30
3. “The Barley Mow” – 5:30
4. “Aberdeen Angus” – 6:02
5. “Lullaby for a Lonely Child” (Karl Jenkins) – 5:35
6. “Molewrench” – 8:54

Artists

Graham Collier, bass; Harry Beckett, flugelhorn; Nick Evans, trombone; Stan Sulzmann, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Karl Jenkins, piano, oboe, John Marshall, drums, Engineer, David Voyde; recorded March 22-23, 1969.

Collier Bio from his Guardian obituary:

Collier was the first Briton to graduate from the jazz course at Berklee College of Music, Boston. He was an influential member of the London-based jazz generation of the late 1960s, fired by a new confidence that contemporary composition could finally be independent of its American models.

His group was to change regularly, in size and personnel, which included some of the finest soloists on the London scene of the mid-60s, including Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett, and Mike Westbrook’s sax virtuoso discovery John Surman. Collier’s later groups maintained the quality of that first line-up over the years, his bands including the composer/pianist Karl Jenkins, the trombonist and bandleader Mike Gibbs, the saxophonists Art Themen, Chris Biscoe and James Allsopp, and many more. In  an interview, Collier said

 “I’ve been working all my life between what’s improvised and what’s written, so maybe it’s appropriate. I think the nature of improvisation is often misunderstood, inside and outside jazz.

To me there are three kinds of improvising. Solo, which is obvious; textural, which is what a rhythm section often does … and structural improvising, which the bandleader or conductor might organise, deciding during the performance to have the band play the sections of the piece in a different order, or play five choruses instead of four, or whatever.What all this amounts to is that as the leader of this kind of band you can seize the moment.”

Following career as an educator, with commissions for jazz ensemble for radio, documentary,  film and theatre, Collier retired to southern Spain, and then moved to an island in the Aegean Sea, where he died, in 2011.

Music

“The late 1960s and early 1970s were years when European jazz in general, and British jazz in particular, came into their own, making a fundamental break with established, exclusively American precedents”  {All About Jazz)

Collier’s other works from 1967-70 includes Deep Dark Blue Centre, Songs for My Father, and Mosaics,  reviewed here at  LJC. Like Mingus and George Russell, Collier combined the role of composer and performer with enabler of other talents. His compositions do not follow any simple familiar ABBA formula, nor abstract expressionist atonal cacophony. They forge a unique melodic and harmonic original path of their own, Collier’s vision, with windows through which soloists can breathe fire.

All-Music Reviewer, thoughtful retrospective assessment:

“Graham Collier’s  works are generally tonally centered and contain melody, but he encourages collective improvisation and stretched harmonies. His pieces carefully balance emotional depth and intellectual rigor, with wonderful harmonies and consistently high levels of performance. This one hits the mark with its carefully constructed compositions and magnificent improvisations.”

So far I have no indications from the audiophile Jazz Revival industry of interest in Graham Collier Music, which is a sad omission. Collier is jewel in the crown of British Jazz.

Vinyl:  Fontana SFJL 922

Cover Art

Costume always tells the story. Recorded in late March 1969, the back cover photo in black and white, of course,  looks shot in the last gasp of British Winter, the band all in shortie macs and Winter coats. Underneath the coat, formal collar and tie, everyone looks serious, like the music, no fake smiles to camera of the selfie-generation, no sportswear brand product-placement, and no Arts-Council grant. It’s got artistic gravity, it’s down another road, authentically 1969.

Harry’s Place

Graham Collier Sextet with Stanley Cowell, Nick Evans, Harry Beckett & Stan Sulzmann, Antibes 1969; Karl Jenkins, Montreux 1970.

Collector’s Corner

Graham Collier Music 1973 concert, Derby Hall, none of the autographs belong to the artists on this recording apart from Collier. Karl Jenkins and John Marshall had gone off to form Soft Machine, my prog-rock friends tell me. 

Ephemeral, this autograph business. “Graham, can I have your autograph, and umm, I guess rude not to ask everyone else…”.  In theory an autograph creates a bond in time and place, to an event.

When holidays were a relatively new experience, people would take home souvenirs to remind themselves of their visit. You don’t give your souvenir to a stranger, a memento of a place they haven’t been.

On the other hand, you could think of it as an artist signing a painting: a declaration of provenance. But then there is no dispute this is an authentic copy of a Graham Collier recording, no need to prove it. 

On balance I think an autograph is a good thing if you were there, not if you were not., and leaves a lingering uncertainty over whether a signature is genuine  – I have a couple of Miles Davis” signed” records, certainly not genuine, and a Dexter Gordon, which probably is. 

 

 

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